Field of the Invention
The present invention realizes control of a notifying unit in a microphone including the notifying unit by remote control, for example, and relates to a microphone connecting device that enables an existing microphone without including the notifying unit to commonly use a balanced-output system of signals.
Description of the Related Art
For example, as conference microphones respectively installed on speech tables of conference rooms or tables of conference attendees, gooseneck-type microphones are provided. The gooseneck-type microphones include a stand arm with a long neck made of a flexible pipe that easily enables angle and height adjustment. A microphone unit case which accommodates a microphone unit is attached to a distal portion of the stand arm.
As the gooseneck-type microphones, typically, a small and light condenser microphone is used. A phantom power feeding system which supplies operating power for an impedance converter of the condenser microphone through the signal lines of the microphone from the microphone amplifier unit is employed.
For the above-described microphones installed in conference rooms, for example, a gooseneck-type microphone including a light emitting body (hereinafter, also called LED) is provided on a main body of the microphone as a notifying unit for making smooth progress of conferences. In such a gooseneck-type microphone, the LED is turned on remotely by an operator, for example, and notifies a speaker that the microphone is in an ON state where the audio signal can be taken in by selection control of the audio signal.
By the way, the above-described conventional condenser microphone without an LED typically incorporates a three-pin type output connector. A microphone cable is attachably/detachably connected to the output connector. As the output connector, a connector defined in EIAJ RC-5236 “A latch lock-type round connector for acoustic devices” is used.
This connector includes a first pin for grounding, a second pin assigned to a hot side of a signal, and a third pin assigned to a cold side of the signal. Such a three-pin type output connector is disclosed in JP 2005-94575 A.
Meanwhile, as for the above-described microphone including the LED on the main body of the microphone, a microphone having an output connector in which a pin for LED control is added to the above-described pins configuration has been conventionally proposed. For such a conventional microphone, lighting control of the LED included on the main body of the microphone can remotely be performed from a microphone amplifier unit.
Further, similarly to the condenser microphone without including an LED, a condenser microphone including an LED connectable in EIAJ RC-5236 has been also proposed. However, this condenser microphone including an LED is configured such that a voltage for driving the LED is applied to the entire housing of the microphone. The housing of the microphone is coated with paint for insulation to prevent a user from getting an electric shock when normally used. However, when removal of the paint, for example, occurs due to repetitive use, the user may possibly get an electric shock by the microphone with this configuration.
As described above, normally, the numbers of pins of the output connectors are different for the microphone including an LED at the microphone main body and the microphone without including an LED. Therefore, sockets of the output connectors are different and common use is not compatible. That is, normally, the former condenser microphone including an LED at the microphone main body and the latter condenser microphone without including an LED are unusable in a mixed manner.
Further, even if the number of pins of the output connector of the microphone including an LED is the same as that of the microphone without including an LED, voltage/current for driving the LED are applied to the housing of the microphone, and thus there is a problem of lack of safety.
Therefore, it is an important issue to provide versatility in a case where a failure occurs in the former microphone including an LED, for example, so that the latter microphone without including an LED can be used in place of the former microphone. Further, a connection configuration of a microphone or a method of connecting a microphone is desired for using the microphone including an LED safely even if the microphone including an LED has the same number of pins as that of a microphone without including an LED.